Saregama to focus on non-film music

Mumbai, Dec 7 (PTI) Saregama India today said it will increasingly focus on non-film music and towards this it has tied up with a host of artistes and channel partners, including music channel UTV Bindas. Launching Saregama Icon Nxt, a platform to promote popular non-movie music artistes here, it also announced tie- ups with UTV Bindass, besides partnerships with YouTube, Talenthouse, Nokia Music Unlimited Service, Flipcart.com, Planet M as well as Big Cinemas. Saregama and UTV Bindass have identified acts like Samar & Sanam, Phoenyx, Nasha, Paapi 4 and The Dhol Factory to revive the non-movie music genre and fashion them into what it calls 'next generation music icons' and will promote these on a revenue sharing basis, the company said. "Saregama will spend Rs 10 crore in this programming and promotion partnership over the next 12 months, with an aim to break-even in four years and turn it into a Rs 100-crore category. Except the TV space, Saregama will hold all the intellectual property across all other platforms," Saregama business head for music Adarsh Gupta said. "Talenthouse India is the world's largest collaborative platform undertaking crowd sourcing creative invites for globally renowned industry names like U2, Metallica, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, etc. We are excited and look forward to provide opportunities for creative artists to showcase their talent through this initiative," Talenthouse India CEO Arun Mehra said. Online shopping portal Flipkart.com has also come on board to promote and retail these artistes' albums with online support across platforms. They have initiated a pre-booking feature for sale of Saregama's Icon NXT CDs online. "Even the past trends at Flipkart indicate that their numbers would certainly top the charts for a long time," Flipcart vice-president for business development Ankit Nagori said. Saregama has also partnered with Nokia to launch the music of these artistes on Nokia Music Unlimited Service. "We are sure that our partnership with Saregama will contribute towards promoting independent music in the country," Nokia India marketing director Viral Oza said. PTI BA BEN VKV